The Portland daily press., 1887-03-02

A Massachusetts, suffragIsts Replies
to MRS. caswell.

women do not wish to vote, let them say So"
But the majority of women never have said
so. lin every State where petitions for
woman suffrage and remonstrances against
1t have been sent in, the petitioners have
| greatly outnumbered the remonstants. OF
i the women who care enough about the mat
i ter TO express themselves either way, the
large majority are in favor. Therefore, if
the question were to be decided like an ordi-
nary election, according to the wish Of the
majority who express any wish, suffrage GER
i tainly ought to be granted
ALI talk about "obliging" women to vote Is
idle. Suffrage Is not compulsory. There is
| not even any moral obligation to vote, In the
rare cases where it cannot be done without
| neglecting more important duties But,
/ wherever full suffrage Is granted, the ma
/ jority of women very soon find that they do
want TO vote and that they can perfectly
well do so without neglecting their other
/ duties.
| Again, it must be remembered that in every
| other connection suffrage Is recognized as an
| individual and not class right III the
/ majority of men do not care to vote-as often
happens at special elections-the right Of the
| minority to cast their ballots Is not cues
/ toned. If the majority Of the women who
own stock in railroad do not care to vote at
stockholders meetings, or prefer to cast
/ vote in person are not forbidden. Nowhere
i else Is ii claimed that IL the majority Of any
/ class do not care to vote, the min0ritysh0uld
| be prevented from doing so. Nobody be-
| lieves in the moral right Of majority Of
men to disfranchise an equally qualified mi
| nority simply by weight Of numbers. Why
| should the case Of women be an exception 10
/ all others? The argument Is something like
this A and do not wish TO vete; is that q
i reason why g shouli be forbidden to do so?
| That depends. III A, b and Q are men, 1t Is
i no reason at all III A, B and are women,
1t is conclusive reason, according to the
| opponents OF suffrage. But why IS reason
i ing sound in the case OF Agnes, Barbara and
| Caroline, which would be unsound in the
case of Albert, Benjamin and Charles
Mrs. Caswell says: "The human heart is
weak and prone to evil without distinction
| Of SEX" But how Is this an argument
shown that women as arule were worse than
| men, that would be an argument. But the
vicious and criminal class IS smaller among
| women than among men. This Is not mat
ter Of sentiment. but Of statistics. Only one
fifth Of the inmates OF our prisons and jails
| are women. AS an eminent clergymen has
said women are the most sober, the most
| moral, and the most religious part Of the
| American people, and 1t is not easy to under
stand why their influence in public affairs is
/ dreaded"
Mrs. Caswell says truly that women have
| done good work in education, on prison
boards, &c, and rather oddly reasons from
this that women are not ut 70 vote. Let us
| turn her argument around. Many men "are
| eminently fitted to work ON boards Of educa-
| tion, public charities, prison boards" &c.
| Many men have done vast work in some of
these directions Then why should they be
allowed to vote? ''Why not get men on
| school boards and prison boards. and keep
them out Of caucuses?" The answer would
| probably be that man who knows enough
| to be prison inspector or a member Of the
board Of public charities, knows enough to
| decide upon the much simpler questions that
come before caucus. 1t must also be re-
| membered that the women who have done
most good In eharities-Clara Barton, for in
stance, and Florence Nightingale-are among
the petitioners for suffrage.
Mrs Caswell says: To-day IL women urge
any moral reform, their motives are literally
above suspicion" There never was more
| the liquor interest heaps upon the character
| and motives of the Woman's Christian Tenn
| perance Union; witness the persecution OF
/ the anti-slavery women; witness the aSper-
| si0ns Mrs. Caswell herself casts upon the
i women who advocate woman suffrage. A
| woman who advocates any moral reform al
/ ways has suspicion cast upon her motives by
its opponents. 1t Is not easy to see how
women who advocate moral reforms viii be
/ any more open to such suspicious after they
have votes than they are now.
Your correspOndentasks, why add to the
| ignorant men who already vote in Portland,
| all the equally ignorant women in Port
land?" Because II is unjust that the most
intelligent woman in Portland should be the
| political infeyior OF the most Ignorant man,
/ as is the case under the present system. BY
| the proposed change we not only add the bad
| and ignorant women to the bad and ignorant
men, but we add the good and intelligent
women to the good and intelligent men. I'm
| less the vicious and ignorant element Is laTg-
| er among women than among men, this could
not lower the standard Of suffrage. II it be
| actually true that "the women engaged in the
| hiding Of beer" in Portland star outnumber
the educated really thoughtful women"
| woman suffrage there might be dangerous I;
otherwise not. Suffragists believe that Amer
| lean women are, on an average, as honest and
good as the men, and have a fair amount of
intelligence and common sense. IL not, wOm-
an suffrage certainly cannot be defended.
Mrs. Caswell asks whether woman suffrage
will promote temperance. Apparently the
liquor dealers think so, since the National
Brewers Convention in Chicago passed a
unanimous resolution against woman suf-
frage. Anyone must give himself credit for
considerable shrewdness, who thinks he
knows what is for the business interest OF
the liquor dealers better than they do them
selves Two sets of acute and intelligent
minds, the liquor men and the temperance
women, have studied this question from op-
| posite points of view, and have reached the
same cOncluson-i. e., that woman suffrage
! would be bad for the liquor business. You
may make church member believe that in
large cities the majority OF mothers would
vote for dram shops. but you can never make
the liquor interest believe it. The children
of darkness are wiser in their generation than
| the children OF light.
Mrs. Caswell intimates that the law is more
| han just to women, since husband Is le-
| gally bound to support his wife, while she Is
| not legally bound to support him. But the
husband has right to all the labor his wife
does in the household, which would be con-
sidered more than an equivalent for board
| and clothes II done by servant A curious
illustration of this was afforded by case
| that happened only few years ago. A farm
| er died childless and without will. The
heirs were avaricieus. m They, grudged the
widow her thirds" They discovered and
proved flaw in her marriage, which she
had never suspected, but which invalidated
the ceremony. They were not obliged TO
give her anything. and did not propose to do
so. The judge thereupon advised her to
bring in bill for her services. She had done
the dead mans housework, the ordinary hare
| work of a farmers wife, for many years. She
had also been supported" but with the dis
cOyery that she was not married woman,
| came too the discovery that her board and
| lodging alone were not an equivalent for her
| labor. She brought In bill for her services
| accordingly, at the ordinary rate paid to do
nestle servants. The court allowed her
| claim Ii took the whole estate 10 pay il,
and the over greedy heirs got nothing.
| A Massachusetts, "remOnstrant says: 1T
is an entire misapprehenslon to speak Of any
woman who does her own work as being
supported" by her husband. She earns her
1
earns his out Of them" The statement
might have included wives who oversee ser
wants, since good hOusekeeper commands
better pay than maid-of-all work. The law
which requires husband TO support his wife
| Is, therefore, no more than just, since he gen.
erally gets full equivalent. III there are
wives who do not furnish the equivalent,
there are also husbands who do not furnish
the support.
Mrs. Caswell asks. "Will somebody please
tell me three points in which women of prop
, erty are wronged under the lawsY
/. A woman Of property has no voice In
fixing the amount Of tax she shall pay.
q She has no voice in deciding how tho
money raised by taxes shall be spent.
8 She has no voice in choosing the mel
who shall spend it.
No man Is ever tempted to wish he were
woman, and no man would exchange his lie
: gal position for that Of a woman's.
| Finally, Mrs. Caswell asks why so man,
''women OF property" sign remonstranees
! Mrs Vanderbilt, believe, once signed re
! mOnstrance In New York. Very wealth
women (though with some notable exeeI
!; tions, like Mrs. Elizabeth ThOmpson) ar
! : more apt to be opposed 10 woman suifrag
than in favor. The reason Is probably to 5
found In saying Of old Commodore Wander
bilts-"Nothing is so timid as 81, ,OOO, 900. un
less 1t be S2,000,000." There Is also a certai
. saying about camel and the eye Of needle
u lwwrI.a .a.N. WaAl